Miniaturized camera is becoming a standard component on Today's portable media devices, such as a mobile phone, portable media player, personal digital assistant, etc. Due to inadequate lighting, poor lighting is a common problem that almost all Camera-Equipped Portable Media Device (CEPMD) suffers. This is particularly important for digital photography with poor image sensors, because lighting condition dramatically affects the media quality.
Using an External Lighting Apparatus (ELA) to improve lighting is not practical for several reasons: 1) small/underpowered lights cannot provide adequate lighting for camera photography without a proper photoflash component, 2) if the ELA exists, the timing window between the photoflash trigger and the camera shutter is so small, it is not feasible to trigger the two components separately, 3) adding a big separate ELA attachment to the CEPMD defeats the purpose of having the device small and portable.